Door To Hell

I've told this story a few times, but I'll tell it again. The story is called The Door to Hell.

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Portland, Oregon 1994

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In the area of South East Portland, just a hair south of Flavel St. and 52nd, was an old historic mansion. It had that semi Adam's Family vibe to it. This place, was haunted A.F.. The stories are already long, and each one could be its own tail, so I'll bullet-point below. If you'd like more details, ask in a reply.

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1. We first heard the sounds of dogs barking, yipping, and whining in the basement the day my friends moved in there. They didn't own a dog.
2. Lights would constantly turn on behind you, or off when you walked into a room. Faucets turned on by themselves. Random objects in locked rooms wouldn't be where they were left.
3. Many times my friend's family and I swear we heard the grandfather clock chime 13 times, at 6:30 in the morning.
4. Many of us felt what could be described a gentle touch like a family member placing their hand on our shoulders. It had weight, and pressure. We'd turn, and nobody was there. This was made even worse, when one of us had our back to the wall.
5. My friend, his older brother, and I witnessed what we would later believe to be the ghost of the original owner. An old man ascended the staircase beside me when I went downstairs to use the bathroom. There were no elderly men in the house.
6. Several times, when driving up the long driveway, a dark figure could be observed watching people driving up to the house in the third story window on the north side. Almost every time this happened, nobody was home.
7. The eldest daughter complained constantly, she'd at random times in her room hear the sound of someone behind her, sniffing her hair. She'd turn, and she'd be alone in the room. Furthermore, she constantly had her door locked, due to her brothers constantly bugging her.
8. Twice, while watching movies in the living room, we all heard the loud and heavy noise of something moving across the wooden floor of the second floor. Somehow, a near 200 pound wooden bed and frame, had moved almost 9 feet across the room without disturbing the contents of the bed.
9. In my opinion, the second scariest thing happened one night while playing D&D in the living room. At one point, Clarissa, the second oldest daughter of my friend's family got up to do a mild bit of body acting for a scene. She moved to the bay window, and placed her hands on the little seat there. Her character, was building up to some sort of loud outburst. She screams to the effect of, "Lord Cavington! I've had enough of you!"
   Without warning, three very loud, very sharp bangs came from the window as if someone was beating their fist on the other side. Seeing as it was still light out, we could see nobody was there. This was followed by a voice screaming from the third floor, "Keep quiet you rotten girl!" That made us all "nope" the hell out that night.
10. Finally, there was The Door to Hell. In that 3rd story suite, we discovered there was a hidden door in the wall, it was a hideaway closet. Behind that door, was a second and smaller door. The moment we all discovered it, we were overcome with this utterly massive sensation of dread. We opened it. Inside was a small-ish crawl-space. The inner walls of the space, were covered in claw-like marks as if made with human fingernails. There were darker stains in the wood when we washed it out to get a better look. On the inside of door #2 were weakly carved words that read, "This is the door to hell...". To this day, I and anybody there that day, constantly have this door appear in our dreams. It appears randomly. Like, Imagine you're walking into a classroom of your high school, you open the door in your dream, but instead of your classroom it's that 3rd story suite with the door to hell open. Each time you ever see it, you're progressively closer to the last. A feeling of predatory desire washes over you, like, you're the prey.

Door to Hell

Source

No, my friends moved out of that house about a year after they moved in. They grew tired of the combination of paranormal activity, and how dire the house needed expensive repairs.

As for the history of the house, I did do some research with my friend. We'll call him Nick. Nick and I by the time we hit high-school, and with rising access to the Internet, we took to looking up information. Some info we got came from the Oregon historical society, while others came from the studies/reports of various Spooky-Stuff investigators. ↓

In regards to the history side of the house, it was commissioned by a Union US Civil War veteran. He had it built so his wife, son, and daughters could move in. He became the most prominent dog breeder in the area. His wife, made and sold dolls. Sometime along the way, the old Soldier suffered a significant breakdown. He began to abuse/torment his wife and kids. The son, got it the worst. He would beat the boy senseless with his cane, then lock him in the Door to Hell cubby-hole. In the end, this butcher killed his wife, daughters, and then himself. His son, had been locked inside that cubby hole and eventually died. Concerned businessmen were worried when the Soldier hadn't come to some meetings of the local Chamber of Commerce, and they sent out some people to investigate. They found a horror show.

From around 1875, until 1974, the house jumped from owners to owners. All saw the customized large Dutch-colonial mansion, and wanted it any number of reasons. All would at some point endure similar supernatural events there, and in 1974 the final owners turned the house over to the local Historical Society. In 1994, Nick's family bought it from the Historical Society for quite the steal. We would find out why in the end.

The house wound up being demolished in 2000. The Historical Society had deemed the house to be too dangerous to preserve, and too expensive. The repairs needed were excessively expensive, so they deemed to demolish it. The lot can be viewed on Google-Maps today.

From the supernatural/paranormal perspective, The Door to Hell house was studied a few times. The first was around 1927. They reported the more poltergeist-like activities, stating things did turn off and on, doors slammed on their own, and stomping footsteps could be heard.

In 1954 some students from OSU went in to check it out for themselves. They reported much of the same.

The last/final inspection came around 1996 or 1997. Nick's family asked a group of Portland based ghost-hunters to check it out. They reported some of the more severe events which included the ghost touches, and sense of abject dread from even looking upon the Door to Hell door.

1. The original home owner was some manner of US Civil War veteran who came to Oregon after the war. He had a wife, a son, and a couple daughters. He was a dog breeder as well. His wife made little dolls. According to some information the father of my friend's big family said, the original owner (Lets call him OO) suffered some manner of breakdown a few years after moving there. OO would torture his son relentlessly, eventually locking him in that little closet. He turned on his wife and daughters next, before committing a murder suicide.
   1. The home passed to a very small number of owners afterward. Pretty much all of them reported paranormal events of the same nature. The home sat unoccupied for about 20 years before the family of my friends moved in.
2. My friend's family were quite devout catholic. I remember them asking our local priest to come and attempt a cleanse. Best I can remember from that far back the attempt was unsuccessful.
3. We wanted to know what was in the second door, as it wasn't on any of the plans that were given to my firends' parents. While Door to Hell was indeed opened, and weird shit went down, that family wasn't in the financial situation to move out for quite a while.